Writing a hyperlink to an existing MS Word document via Matlab

Hello,

I'm having some trouble writing a hyperlink to an existing MS word document using my Matlab code.

The idea is the following: I have to write a large number of standardized reports with some text, some links, etc so I start from a word template document in which I replace certain words which are easily recognizable. Replace all for short pieces of text works fine, and adding large pieces of text also works, but when I want to have the links work as a hyperlink and not just be plain text, I get an error when I want to execute the VBA command. I can't seem to fix the issue with the existing answers to other questions.

Here is my code, the error is in the last line:

Word = actxserver('Word.application');

Word.Visible = 1;

set(Word,'DisplayAlerts',0);

Docs = Word.Documents;

Doc = Docs.Open(destination);

% Replace all for short strings

Replaced_string = 'Old_string';

New_string = 'Someting_new';

selection = Word.Selection;

selection.Find.Execute(Replaced_string,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,0,New_string,2,0,0,0,0);

% Replace string by very long string/paragraph

Replaced_string = 'Old_string';

New_string = 'Very long string or complete paragraph'

selection = Word.Selection;

T = selection.Find.Execute(Replaced_string,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,0,'',0,0,0,0,0);

if T % if the old string was found, the cursor is at the right location and the long string can be written

Word.selection.TypeText(New_string );

Word.selection.TypeParagraph;

end

% Replacing a string with an active hyperlink

Replaced_string = 'String_to_be_replaced_by_link';

New_string = 'www.google.com' ;

selection = Word.Selection;

% Look if you can find the Replace_string, and if so, write at that location your link

T = selection.Find.Execute(Replaced_string,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,0,'',0,0,0,0,0);

if T

word_handle = Word.Documents.Open(destination);

Word.ActiveDocument.Content.InsertAfter(New_string);

Word.ActiveDocument.Hyperlinks.Add(word_handle.Range(0, length(New_string)), New_string);

end

The error message I get is:

Error using Interface.0002099C_0000_0000_C000_000000000046/Add

Invoke Error, Dispatch Exception:

Source: Microsoft Word

Description: Opdracht mislukt (= comand failed (dutch))

Help File: wdmain11.chm

Help Context ID: 9066

Thanks in advance !

Answer 1

[Nithin]

Hi @Punch Powertrain,

The main issue is with the way you're trying to add a hyperlink, the arguments of "hyperlinks.Add" are not passed properly. Instead, use "selection.Delete" to remove the found string before adding the hyperlink and use "selection.Hyperlinks.Add(selection.Range, ...)" to add the hyperlink at the cursor.

T = selection.Find.Execute(Replaced_string,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,0,'',0,0,0,0,0);
if T
    % Remove the found text
    selection.Delete;
    % Insert the hyperlink at the current selection
    % Hyperlinks.Add(Range, Address, SubAddress, ScreenTip, TextToDisplay)
    selection.Hyperlinks.Add(selection.Range, LinkURL, '', '', LinkText);
end

Additionally, the error may also occur if you run the script multiple times without saving and closing the Word document, causing MATLAB to lose access to it. To prevent this, make sure to save and close the document at the end of your script:

pause(1);
% Save and close document if needed
Doc.Save;
Doc.Close;
Word.Quit;

Refer to the following documentation for more information: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/actxserver.html

Hope this resolves your issue!